Preacher: Revd George Mwaura
Minister: Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Gathering Music

Welcome

Opening Sentences

Gracious God, we give you thanks this night
for the privilege of gathering to remember, to celebrate, and to share.
We give you thanks for the journey we have been on with you –
from manger to Temple, from Egypt to Galilee, from darkness to light.
Tonight we feast, as you did on a night like this so long ago,
remembering your promises, your mighty deeds, your rescue of your people, your saving grace.
As we share this meal tonight, make us mindful of those who are hungry.
As we celebrate together, make us mindful of those who sorrow and those who are alone.
As we remember once again all you have done and all that you are, form us once again into your people.
May all who hunger come to rejoice in the feast of your kingdom.
Let all the human family sit at your table, drink the wine of deliverance, and eat the bread of freedom.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Hymn: A new commandment I give unto you

A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another.

A new commandment I give unto you, …

You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Without my help you can do nothing.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Without my help you can do nothing.

A new commandment I give unto you, …

I am the true vine, my Father is the gardener.
Abide in me: I will be with you.
I am the true vine, my Father is the gardener.
Abide in me: I will be with you.

A new commandment I give unto you, …

True love is patient, not arrogant nor boastful;
love bears all things, love is eternal.
True love is patient, not arrogant nor boastful;
love bears all things, love is eternal.

A new commandment I give unto you, …

Anonymous, based on John 13: 34–35)
CCL31580

Gathering Prayer

‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you.’

Let us pray.

O Christ, pouring yourself out, love drained to the last drop,
release us from our sins.

O Christ, kneeling as a servant, washing the disciples’ feet, shocking in your humility,
help us to follow in your way.

O Christ, taking bread and wine, crystal-clear in your awareness of the work you must complete,
nourish us on your saving presence.

O Christ, entering Gethsemane, falling on your face to pray, uncontainable in your broken heart,
strengthen us to share your sufferings.

Infinite, intimate God, this night you kneel before us and wash our feet.
In awe and wonder, we lay ourselves bare to your redeeming acts of love.

Amen

Ministry of the Word

Exodus 12: 1–4 & 11–14

Read by Kudakwashe Matare

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. … ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² ‘On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴ ‘This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.

NIV®

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

John 13: 1–17 & 31–35

Read by Brian Halstead

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

¹ It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’

⁷ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

⁸ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’

Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’

⁹ ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’

¹⁰ Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ¹³ ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.’

…

³¹ When he [Judas] was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ ‘My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

NIV®

This is the gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our light.

Meditation

By Revd George Mwaura

Sacrament of Service

In Christ’s name and improvising from his example, each of us is invited to receive the gift of hand-washing and to offer the same gift to another

Love of God, poured out for the world: let this water be for us a source of life;
as we share in this gift of kindness, wash away our fear, revive our faith, let your love shine through.

Amen

[The Congregation is invited to come forward to wash their hands in the bowl.]

At the end, we pray together:

Christ, whose feet were caressed with perfume and a woman’s hair;
you humbly took basin and towel and washed the feet of your friends.
As we have touched one another in kindness,
wash us with your tenderness that, embracing your service freely,
we may spread your fragrance among the ‘undeserving’ and ‘unclean’.

Amen

The Peace

Jesus says:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

Hymn: Lord, Jesus Christ

Lord, Jesus Christ.
you have come to us,
You are one with us,
Mary’s son
Cleansing our souls from all their sin,
pouring your love and goodness in,
Jesus our love for you we sing,
living Lord.

Lord, Jesus Christ.
now and every day
teach us how to pray,
Son of God.
You have commanded us to do
this in remembrance, Lord, of you:
into our lives your power breaks through,
living Lord.

Lord, Jesus Christ.
you have come to us,
born as one of us,
Mary’s son
Led out to die on Calvary,
risen from death to set us free,
living Lord Jesus, help us see
living Lord.

Lord, Jesus Christ.
I would come to you,
live my life for you,
Son of God.
All your commands I know are true,
your many gifts will make me new:
into my life your power breaks through,
living Lord.

Patrick Appleford (1924–2018)
CCL31580

[The Table is prepared.]

The Story

To his followers in every age, Jesus gave an example and command
rooted in the experience he shared with his disciples in an upstairs room in Jerusalem.
So now we do as Jesus did.

We take this bread and this wine,
produce of the earth and fruit of human labour.

In these, Jesus has promised to be present;
through these, Christ can make us whole.

May God be with you.
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.

It is indeed right, for you made us,
and before us, you made the world we inhabit,
and before the world, you made the eternal home in which, through Christ, we have a place.

All that is spectacular, all that is plain have their origin in you;
all that is lovely, all who are loving point to you as their fulfilment.

And grateful as we are for the world we know and the universe beyond our understanding,
we particularly praise you, whom eternity cannot contain,
for coming to earth and entering time in Jesus.

For his life which informs our living,
for his compassion which changes our hearts,
for his clear speaking which contradicts our harmless generalities,
for his disturbing presence, his innocent suffering, his fearless dying,
his rising to life-breathing forgiveness,
we praise you and worship him.

Here too our gratitude rises for the promise of the Holy Spirit,
who even yet, even now, confronts us with your claims and attracts us to your goodness.

And now, lest we believe that our praise alone fulfils your purpose,
we fall silent and remember him who came because words weren’t enough.

Setting our wisdom, our will, our words aside, emptying our hearts, and bringing nothing in our hands
we yearn for the healing, the holding, the accepting, the forgiving which Christ alone can offer.

[Silence]

Merciful God, send now, in kindness, your Holy Spirit
to settle on this bread and wine and fill them with the fullness of Jesus.
And let that same Spirit rest on us,
converting us from the patterns of this passing world,
until we conform to the shape of him whose food we now share.

Amen

Breaking Bread

[The bread is taken and broken.]

Among friends, gathered round a table,
Jesus took bread, and broke it, and said,
‘This is my body – broken for you.’

[The cup is taken.]

Later he took a cup of wine and said,
‘This is the new relationship with God
made possible because of my death.
Take it, all of you, to remember me.’

Invitation

This is the table, not of the Church, but of the Lord.
It has been made ready for those who love him
and who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little;
you who have tried to follow and you who have failed.

Come, with Thomas and Judas, Joseph and the Marys, Peter, James and John,
not because I invite you: it is our Lord;
and it is his will that those who seek him should meet him here.

Prayer after Communion

Christ of the Passion,
you have shown tenderness
and called us your friends;
your gift of love weighs heavily upon us.
Grant us grace to bestow and to bless.

Amen

Hymn: Meekness and majesty

Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity,
in perfect harmony, the Man who is God.
Lord of eternity dwells,
kneels in humility and washes our feet.

O what a mystery, meekness and majesty,
bow down and worship for this is your God,
this is your God.

Father’s pure radiance, perfect in innocence,
yet learns obedience to death on a cross.
Suffering to give us life, conquering through sacrifice,
and as they crucify prays: ‘Father forgive.’

O what a mystery, …

Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible,
love indestructible in frailness appears.
Lord of infinity, stooping so tenderly,
lifts our humanity to the heights of his throne.

O what a mystery, …

Graham Kendrick (b. 1950)
CCL31580

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, on the night before you suffered,
you showed your disciples the extent of your love,
you gave them this sacrament of forgiveness and remembrance,
and you promised them that you would drink it again with them in your Father’s kingdom.
As we have partaken of this sacrament, show us your love in your words of invitation,
restore our joy in the forgiveness you have won by your death and resurrection,
and give us hope in the promise you have given of a feast to come.
In this sacrament, live and rule in us,
even as you live and rule with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

[We leave the Worship Area in silence.]